Chris Matthews: Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan Will 'Kill Half the People Who Watch My Show'

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[Sub-Driver]

Chris Matthews: Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan Will 'Kill Half the People Who Watch My Show' By Noel Sheppard Created 04/11/2011 - 8:35pm

By Noel Sheppard | April 11, 2011 | 20:35

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Monday spent much of show scaring viewers about Congressman Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.) recently released budget proposal.

So apoplectic was the "Hardball" host that he told liberal guests Howard Fineman and Richard Wolffe that Ryan's Medicare reform pland "is going to kill half the people who watch this show" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

HOWARD FINEMAN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: The good thing for the president is the Paul Ryan Medicare plan, because it makes people angry. And, first of all, it scares seniors.

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Yes. Well, it should.

FINEMAN: Yes, and it should. But, at the same time, it exempts 55 and over, so it’s going to really annoy younger people who are going to at some point get -- supposed to get the Medicare benefits -- 40 to 55...

If it exempts people 55 and over, why should it scare seniors? Exempts means they're not impacted by this whatsoever. Why should anybody be scared by something that doesn't impact them?

People are encouraged to remember this as Matthews either doesn't understand it, or is an extremely dishonest person:

MATTHEWS: Howard, you know -- you’re close to me in age. Let me just point this out.

FINEMAN: Yes. Right.

MATTHEWS: Most people who follow the news and watch the newspapers every day and watch television shows like this on FOX or this network, MSNBC, or anywhere, on CNN, they -- those most attuned to this debate over the budget are either retired or close to it.

FINEMAN: Yes.

MATTHEWS: They are very sensitive to the fact that they have planned in their retirement that their medical costs will be covered by their Medicare plan. They don’t have to save $20 million so they can pay for their medical expenses when they get older, right, which are going to get more costly as they get older.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: The federal government promised that back in the ‘60s, that they would take care of people who have worked their whole life for their medical costs.Now the Republicans are saying, no, no, we’re not going to do that anymore.

FINEMAN: I totally agree. My only point was, in addition to scaring everybody for those very valid reasons...

For the record, Matthews turned 65 last December. This means he is already eligible for Medicare and would not be impacted by Ryan's plan. I couldn't find Fineman's birthday, but as he graduated high school in 1966, he's probably 62 or 63 making him also exempt from Ryan's plan.

As such, there's absolutely no reason for them to be scared that their Medicare benefits are at all at risk by what the Wisconsin Congressman has proposed, and no one 55 or over should be either.

Yet, in the ensuing minutes, Matthews and his guests were actually going to wonder why seniors don't understand this:

MATTHEWS: Right.

FINEMAN: ... it’s not going to win points among younger people below 55 either.

MATTHEWS: Why not?

FINEMAN: Because they’re going to turn it into the plan where you only get a certain amount of money.

MATTHEWS: Yes.

FINEMAN: In other words, all the changes are going to be for those younger people. So they’re the ones who ultimately will get screwed.

MATTHEWS: Yes. Here’s your Borders book $10 gift certificate that’s going to pay for your million dollar health care costs. It’s a joke.

(CROSSTALK)

RICHARD WOLFFE, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. But here’s the perverse thing. For a start, the age exemption didn’t work for Bush when it came to Social Security.

MATTHEWS: It went nowhere.

WOLFFE: So they know that’s political...

MATTHEWS: Why? Because people don’t hear this?

FINEMAN: They don’t hear it. They don’t hear it.

WOLFFE: They don’t hear it.

Indeed. They don't hear it, because people like this misrepresent it. If Matthews, Fineman, and Wolffe all made it clear that Ryan's bill doesn't impact anyone 55 and older, retirees and soon-to-be retirees wouldn't be afraid of it.

Instead, Matthews ignorantly or dishonestly claimed: "The federal government promised that back in the ‘60s, that they would take care of people who have worked their whole life for their medical costs. Now the Republicans are saying, no, no, we’re not going to do that anymore."

And Fineman responded, "I totally agree. My only point was, in addition to scaring everybody for those very valid reasons, it’s not going to win points among younger people below 55 either."

And these so-called journalists why the exemption age of 55 didn't work for Bush when he tried to reform Social Security in 2005, and why it's going to be problematic for Ryan's Medicare reform plan. It's because shills like these are intentionally trying to scare and confuse the public.

But the best was still to come:

WOLFFE: But that’s a political opportunity that, perversely, this White House is not going to leap on right now. There may be lots of people in the Senate on the Democrats’ side who say, let’s use it as a political football, but this president...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Well, they’re saving it for November.

WOLFFE: This president -- no, no. The president is going to say, if there’s a deal out there, let’s do it, but the deal has to be reasonable; the deal has to include taxes. What’s unreasonable...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: This is smart. In other words, don’t...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Don’t let it be dead on arrival.

WOLFFE: No.

MATTHEWS: Let the Republican sit out there, sit out there, as the basis for a compromise.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: They’re that smart? They’re that smart?

(CROSSTALK)

WOLFFE: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: They’re that smart?

(CROSSTALK)

WOLFFE: They are smart enough to play that game, but they’re going to say, if you are serious about deficits, you cannot leave taxes off the table.

MATTHEWS: OK.

FINEMAN: Yes. He...

MATTHEWS: Will -- will that ever sell with the country? Will the Congress ever adopt a combination of some modification or cost-cutting, which we know has to come into place, somehow squeeze the costs of Medicare -- medical costs, and a tax increase for people who can afford it, as a -- as a more democratic, a more fair way to deal with this problem? Will they get that through and signed by the president, or is that just a posture?

HOWARD FINEMAN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think it’s a possibility but they’ll be glad to talk about it for the next few months. The one thing the president doesn’t want to do is talk about tax increases in isolation.

MATTHEWS: Fair enough. I’m with you.

FINEMAN: As Richard was saying, you’ve got -- you can’t -- that won’t work for Democrats, even if you’re just going to tax rich people. You have to put it in the context of a plan.

MATTHEWS: OK. So, guys are so smart. I’m with the smart people here.

FINEMAN: Right.

MATTHEWS: So, the plan is the president says, look, let them offer a big slash in Medicare, which is going to kill half the people who watch this show.

So the reform package for Medicare in Ryan's budget will kill half of the people who watch "Hardball."

And this is sadly what passes for journalism at MSNBC.

[Ronin]

A cold drink of water and an original though would kill half of Chrissy’s viewers. But nobody would notice until the bodies started to smell — worse.

[Hacklehead]

“Chris Matthews: Paul Ryan’s Medicare Plan Will ‘Kill Half the People Who Watch My Show”

What’s the downside?

[fatnotlazy]

It’s a variation of the main liberal talking point: Any “adjustment” in entitlements is going to cause death and destruction. We saw that with Nancy Pelosi’s remarks that the elderly will starve if we make the big cuts, and this same theme is being repeated all over among the socialists and their allies in the media. I guess Chrissie and the rest of the mainstream media were schooled by the liberal socialist Democrats in how to spin these cuts as a major calamity.

[cranked]

Half of 50 is 25...not bad when you consider how many people Medicare covers huh, MatthewsIdiot? =.=

[Bringbackthedraft]

LOL, the Crissy Comedy Hour has been killing me for years.

[Mobties]

Publicly digging his own grave ... and NBC’s — by loudly broadcasting straight lines like this. It's a shame there wasn't someone there with a sane, conservative rejoinder.

I assume the late night comics will get some mileage on this one.

Maybe Chrissie thinks his abysmal ratings are due to government health care policy.

[muawiyah]

Chris only has a handful of regular viewers, and they are all Democrats.

There is no problem here if Ryan's budget kills half of them ~ at least nothing I personally would regard as a problem.

[762X51]

Kill only half of ‘em huh? Then pass it twice.

[ibytoohi]

I believe we’re missing the point. Since we are dealing with liberal Democrats here (sorry, redundant) the same method of counting Chrissie’s viewers for ratings is used to count democratic votes. So, since a great percentage of them are already dead, what’s the problem? No one really gets hurt because they’re beyond that.

[ibytoohi]

I believe we’re missing the point. Since we are dealing with liberal Democrats here (sorry, redundant) the same method of counting Chrissie’s viewers for ratings is used to count democratic votes. So, since a great percentage of them are already dead, what’s the problem? No one really gets hurt because they’re beyond that.

[tsowellfan]

Chris Matthews: Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan Will 'Kill Half the People Who Watch My Show'

Given the size of Matthews audience I take that as an endorsement of the plan.

[NewHampshireDuo]

He’s got two stupid viewers, and my poor ignorant FIL is one of them.

I have a relative who'd watch his show but she doesn't need to - she gets all her news from her union (SEIU).

[ETL]

From MSNBC Hardball with Chris Matthews (transcript)
March. 21, 2006:

KRISTINN, FREEREPUBLIC.COM: We have kids that wear Che Guevara shirts here in the United States.

MATTHEWS: Yes, but they're kind of cute at this point, aren't they? They're not about somebody out to get us now. I think there's a difference. I mean, that's kind of camp almost, isn't it?...is Che Guevara the symbol of hate in the United States anymore?

KRISTINN: Yes.

MATTHEWS: I don't think so. I mean, a lot of our kids wear them. I see kids wearing them all the time, even my kids wear them. It's like a Robert Marley T-shirt at this point.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11943459/

_________________________________________________________

http://www.che-lives.com/home/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=thumbnails&album=1

[Colonel_Flagg]

MATTHEWS: So, the plan is the president says, look, let them offer a big slash in Medicare, which is going to kill half the people who watch this show.

As long as we get to choose which half, Captain Hyperbole.

[paulycy]

[sickoflibs]

RE :”MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Monday spent much of show scaring viewers about Congressman Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.) recently released budget proposal. So apoplectic was the “Hardball” host that he told liberal guests Howard Fineman and Richard Wolffe that Ryan's Medicare reform pland “is going to kill half the people who watch this show” (video follows with transcript and commentary): “

Most of you probably avoid watching Matthews but I do and for the past 4 -6 months he has been calling on Republicans to come up with a proposal to cut/reform Medicare and Social security. In fact he was critical that their prior proposals didn't address those two. In fact I pinged many of you to a related thread and gave a warning that this was a Matthews trap, that as soon as they did he would demigod it. Obama did the same thing but more low jey.

This reminds me of Matthews in a tizzy for Rush jokingly using the word Regime claiming that 'no one has ever used that term to describe an administration before' when he himself (Matthews) used it (regime) to describe the Bush administration.

[ETL]

Che flag sends 'disturbing' message about Obama
Candidate attracts 'people who think mass murderers are romantic revolutionaries'
February 13, 2008
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

The Fox TV affiliate in Houston has captured images of a volunteer in a campaign office for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama working in front of a flag featuring the image of Che Guevara, the South American revolutionary who became Fidel Castro's executioner after the communist takeover in Cuba.

And while the Obama campaign has issued a statement placing a modest distance between the campaign and its "volunteers," the issue of such an image on display in an office operating on behalf of a man hoping to be commander in chief of the world's last remaining superpower is raising alarms.

Even Obama supporters have been forced into corners because of the issue, with one likening the Texas state Republican Party to Guevara, to whom have been attributed hundreds of executions of anti-Castro leaders.

Under the heading "Barack Guevara," Investor's Business Daily raised some of the more pointed questions, to which the campaign responded only with a statement: "The office featured in this video is funded by volunteers of the Barack Obama Campaign and is not an official headquarters for his campaign. ..."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56293

[Disambiguator]

Ok, question: how many die because they can’t get medical attention, vs how many drop dead on the spot from shear outrage.

Is that what they call it when you're angry about a bad haircut?

;^)

[TexasFreeper2009]

His mom is going to die? because it's either him or his mom that will supposedly die, since they are the only two watching his lame show.

[paulycy]